British Columbia has reported 723 new cases of COVID-19 across the province in the last 24 hours with 28 additional deaths in that span.
Of the 723 new cases, 10 are linked to the Island Health region.
There are currently 9,524 active cases in British Columbia, while 11,947 residents remain under active public health monitoring.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says that 346 are in hospital currently – an increase of 8 from Wednesday – with 83 people in critical care as a result of the virus (increasing by eight from Wednesday).
On Thursday, there were 28 additional deaths related to the virus – a day Dr. Bonnie Henry referred to as one of the most ‘tragic days yet.’ This brings the provincial death total over the course of the pandemic to 587.
One of those deaths was linked to the Island Health region.
B.C. has now reported 106 deaths from the virus over the last week.
Dr. Henry said that 26 out of the 28 deaths announced today were elders or seniors in long-term care homes.
Since Wednesday’s numbers, there have been 135 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 456 in the Fraser Health region, 10 in the Island Health region, 82 in the Interior Health region, 40 in the Northern Health region and no new cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
As of Thursday, the total number of cases in British Columbia over the course of the pandemic has been 40,060.
Dr. Henry noted that there have been “thankfully” no new health-care facility outbreaks to report on Thursday.
The outbreak at one of the acute care units at Burnaby Hospital as well as the outbreak at Rotary Manor in Northern Health are declared over.
There are now 57 active outbreaks in long-term care and assisted living and eight in acute care facilities.
On Wednesday, B.C. health officials rolled out their vaccination plan after Health Canada officially approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
The first shipment arriving next week will contain 3,900 doses — which come frozen in trays consisting of 975 doses each — will be delivered to undisclosed locations within Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health.
The first people to receive the vaccine will be healthcare workers, particularly those working in long-term care and those in acute care hospitals.
“By this time next week, the first people in British Columbia will have been immunized,” Dr. Henry said during a press conference on Thursday.
“This is an important, encouraging milestone for us in our response to the pandemic here in British Columbia,” she added. “But I would like to remind people, we are not yet through this storm…It is when we are tired when we may stumble, and now, when we have a finish line that is in sight, we need to pace ourselves and need to continue working together, even though we are tired.”
Dr. Henry notes that the plan to distribute the vaccine is complex, but was built to be flexible and adapt to the changing details.
Island Health
As of Thursday, the health authority had 161 active cases – 54 (-3) on southern Vancouver Island, 76 (+5) on central Vancouver Island and 31 (+1) on northern Vancouver Island.
Southern Vancouver Island includes the Greater Victoria region, Southern Gulf Islands and the Port Renfrew area.
Central Vancouver Island includes the Cowichan Valley, Duncan, Nanaimo, Parksville, Port Alberni and Tofino areas.
Northern Vancouver Island goes from the Comox Valley to Port Hardy but also includes surrounding areas like Alert Bay and Sointula.
Over the course of the pandemic, the Island Health region has reported 750 cases.
COVID-19 in Island Health region – Dec. 10
More COVID-19 information
If there is a confirmed COVID-19 case in a school, public health contacts affected school community members directly. Regional health authorities also post-school notifications on their websites, providing the date and type of notification (outbreak, cluster or exposure) for impacted schools.
The Island Health school site can be found here.
Island Health’s COVID-19 data breaks down North, Central and South Island case counts and lists the number of days since any new lab-diagnosed cases. You can find the data here along with any public exposures.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide is more than 69.4 million. More than 1.58 million deaths have been recorded.
Graham Cox
